Observations by an academic researcher on the use of “open”-ness as a competitive strategy, with a particular interest in coping with the commoditization of information goods and technologies in an Internet-enabled world.

Monday, September 10, 2007

IBM and Sun haven’t gotten along much in the past decade. After all, Sun’s cofounder (and longtime CEO) Scott McNeily fancied himself the leader of the anti-Microsoft coalition, whereas IBM created Eclipse (get it) to wrest control of Java development away from Sun. (A mission that largely succeeded).

But then Sun has a new CEO, and as Jonathan Schwartz himself crowed last month, on Aug. 16 IBM committed to selling Sun’s Solaris OS to run on IBM hardware. (IBM also announced a less ambitious SOlaris reselling plan two years ago).